MIAMI — Lab tests detected only marijuana in the system of a Florida man shot while chewing another man’s face, the medical examiner said Wednesday, ruling out other street drugs including the components typically found in the stimulants known as bath salts.
There has been much speculation about what drugs, if any, would lead to the bizarre behavior that authorities said Rudy Eugene exhibited during the attack that left the other man disfigured. A Miami police union official had suggested that Eugene, who was shot and killed by police, was under the influence of bath salts.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner said that the toxicology detected marijuana, but it didn’t find other street drugs, alcohol, or prescription drugs. Eugene also tested negative for adulterants commonly mixed with street drugs.
Advertisement
The department ruled out the most common components found in bath salts, which mimic the effects of cocaine or methamphetamine and have been associated with bizarre crimes in recent months. An outside lab also confirmed the absence of bath salts, synthetic marijuana, and LSD.
Messages left with the medical examiner’s office were not immediately returned.
An expert on toxicology testing said that marijuana alone wasn’t likely to cause behavior as strange as Eugene’s.
‘‘The problem today is that there is an almost an infinite number of chemical substances out there that can trigger unusual behavior,’’ said Dr. Bruce Goldberger, professor and director of toxicology at the University of Florida.